Farris addresses Republican women

Linda Saholt

News Review Correspondent

“We need to redefine ourselves and who we are as Republicans,” said Bill Farris to the Ridgecrest Republican Women,, Federated. Farris is a member of the Kern County Republican Central Com-mittee and president of the Sierra Sands Unified School District Board of Education.

He said Central Committee responsibilities include fundraising, registering new Republicans to vote, staffing the headquarters, providing services to GOP candidates, getting out the vote and organizing groups to support the candidates.

Speaking without notes, Farris displayed his depth of knowledge.

His main theme was “the difference between how we thought things work in this country and how they actually work.” He sees the Republican Party overall as diffusing energy by getting bogged down in many issues of lesser importance rather than focusing on a few issues of greater importance.

“We have no clear vision,” he said, as some members of the audience expressed a perception of no distinction between the Republi-cans and the Democrats. He advocated a rethinking of priorities on the part of party members to keep the biggest, most important issues clearly in the forefront.

Since the Democrats won the last election, “The California legislature can accomplish anything it wants without including Republi-cans,” he said. “Are we going to be part of the discussion? If we’re not relevant, how do we put ourselves back into the discussion?”

He led the group in an exercise to illustrate his point. Attendees were asked to name their top priorities for principles of government. Then he asked the group to vote on each issue to eliminate two of the issues “They are still important and there will still be discussions,” he said. “But they’re just not in the top tier of importance.”

After the votes were counted up, he called the group’s attention to the irregular results. “Even in a group this small, we have divergence in what’s most important to us all,” he said.

“What are the key elements that absolutely drive us? We’re going to have to learn to live with the rest. We have to be reasoning and reasonable.”

His job on the school board is to work with others to come to agreement about what’s best for the students, not who’s right and who’s not. “We’re not partisan.”

“In the early formation of this country, John Adams struggled with the issue of whether to oppose slavery. It was a key element when the states were uniting. He was absolutely opposed to slavery, but in the end he voted to accecpt it so the country could unite.

“This horrific issue was set aside so we could become united as a country and deal with it later. Eventually, the U.S. was able to deal with the issue. There was a very high cost in lives to this country. But we did deal with it.

“Which principles do we stand for and fight for today, so we can have an opportunity to affect tomorrow? We need to be ready, so when those in power fail, we can step in and say we have a plan.”

The next meeting will be on March 15 at noon at Victoria’s at the Heritage. Cerro Coso Com-munity College President Jill Board will speak. The luncheon costs $14; for reservations call Barbara Hall at 760-375-1966.